


smoke and mirrors

by nickofhearts



Series: like the sun loves the moon [1]
Category: Final Fantasy XV
Genre: Chancellor McHottie, M/M, Nox & Lux, Twincest
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-03-05
Updated: 2017-03-05
Packaged: 2018-09-28 09:39:01
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Underage
Chapters: 2
Words: 1,830
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/10087847
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/nickofhearts/pseuds/nickofhearts
Summary: Noctis has a twin. They get intwicethe trouble.





	1. i know you love me deep inside

**Author's Note:**

  * For [dreamingcicadas](https://archiveofourown.org/users/dreamingcicadas/gifts).



"Who do you think _that_ is," Lux said with interest, staring after the stranger that was strolling down the hall in a long swishy coat. He was striding towards the throne room with _purpose,_ and seemed to pass from the sight of guards and maidservants without alerting them, their gazes sliding off him like water. 

"He looks _fancy,"_ Nox agreed. 

They slunk after him carefully, which wasn't hard when he wasn't expecting to be watched. 

Nox and Lux shared a twin look of conspiratorial glee when the stranger disappeared through the doors into the audience chamber. It was tricky, but you could warp up to the balconies on the second floor without alerting anyone if you managed it _exactly,_ which they'd obviously practiced until they had it down to an art. 

They caught the end of the stranger's spiel as he introduced himself, "Ardyn _Izunia,_ Chancellor of Niflheim, at your _humble_ service," and bowed low, back and most importantly, _ass,_ turned perfectly towards them. 

" _Oooh,_ Chancellor McHottie," Lux whispered. 

Nox murmured in agreement, the two of them listening along distractedly as Ardyn outlined some terms for a peace treaty with Niflheim, but what they were _really_ interested in was the way he filled out his lavish jacket, the scarves that trailed behind it almost hypnotic in its movements.

"Who's Princess Lunafreya?" Nox asked, scrunching his nose.

"The _Oracle,_ dumbass," Lux answered, pinching his twin on the side. "He called us _fetching,_ pay attention!"

The two of them ducked down as one as Regis looked up at the balcony at that exact moment, as if he could _sense_ them up there even if he couldn't see them. 

They exhaled a simultaneous sigh of disappointment as Ardyn turned and strode back out of the throne room after making a few more vaguely threatening noises, presumably to return home to Niflheim, and that was when Lux turned to Nox with a _gleam_ in his eye, the red one standing out particularly against the expression that looked almost _evil_ —

"You _know,_ Nox, I've always wanted to see Niflheim for myself. The Chancellor has been _so_ kind to grace us with his presence, don't you think we should return the favour?"

Nox grinned back a mirror expression of absolute wickedness. "Why _Lux,_ it would be amiss of us not to."

They linked arms and crept quietly out of the room, stalking their prey as it wound through the busy streets of Insomnia and back to the airship that would take it to its homeland. They warped into the hanger _just_ as the door was closing, Ardyn's footsteps already echoing down the hallway, and no one was the wiser.

-

Lux always liked to tell people he was the older twin, born ahead of Nox by minutes or hours, depending on his mood of the day, but the truth was, they didn't _know_. Regis refused the question every time he was asked, stating that _neither_ of them were going to take the throne because he was going to _murder them both_ before they reached the age of majority. 

This was mostly fair, as the question usually got asked after they'd been in some kind of trouble, from eating all the desserts for the day's dinner and getting to sick to their stomachs, or playing "pin the tail on a passerby," and Lux had daringly skulked up behind the Captain of the Kingsglaive and _slapped him on the ass_ , leaving the tail pinned crookedly in place, and Regis was looking at them both like he wished with all his _heart_ that their mother were still here to deal with this instead. 

-

"Why don't _we_ have any airships?" Nox asked, creeping behind Lux as they explored the vast cavernous space of the hanger, keeping close to the wall when they reached the corridor on the other side, heading further inside. "This thing is fucking _cool_." 

"We should nick some blueprints while we're in Niflheim," Lux agreed. "They have all _sorts_ of magitek that we haven't even heard of, I bet dad would be impressed if we could bring some of it back to Insomnia."

They flattened themselves into a small gap in the wall as one of the said magitek units walked by them on patrol, its mechanical gaze glowing eerily in the dim light of the airship's inside. It stopped at the end of the corridor, its clockwork heart clicking, tick tok tick tok, before it turned a perfect 90 degrees and clanked out of view.

"Not those though," Nox whispered, shuddering where he was pressed against Lux.

"They could be useful," Lux said thoughtfully. "You're not _scared_ of the itsy bitsy robots are you, Noxious?"

Nox tried to shove an elbow into his stomach, but they were squished so close together that it just tangled them further, Lux retaliating by making an attempt at kneeing Nox somewhere delicate, and they fell out of the nook onto the metallic floor with an _oof_ just as Ardyn appeared into view, looking down at them with an expression of unexpected _delight._

-

Nox reflexively tugged at the earring dangling from his ear, opposite to Lux's, as Ardyn steepled his fingers against his chin and questioned them on what exactly they were doing sneaking around on his airship.

"We're the official Lucian envoy to the Empire," Lux answered immediately, standing straight-backed and at attention, and Nox nodded with him in agreement, affecting the same stance. Ardyn's eyes really were pretty this up close, his lips looking absolutely _kissable_ , and Nox tamped down on the urge to just reach out and see if Ardyn's hair was as silky as it seemed. Regis had drummed it into them that people were not _toys_ the tenth, fifteenth, twentieth time Lux and Nox had traumatized some poor servant with their games. 

"Yet you hid away instead of announcing yourselves," Ardyn was saying, drawling that slow honey voice. Nox tangled his hand with Lux's behind their backs, who returned his squeeze in commiseration, Chancellor McHottie was _living up to the name_. "Had you even informed your father of your intentions before you followed me aboard?"

Nox and Lux exchanged a _look,_ then burst out laughing. "Dad doesn't _want_ to know what we're up to," Nox answered this time. 

"Cor'll probably come get us," Lux added, frowning. "The Marshal is _such_ a buzzkill."

The two turned their eyes back to Ardyn, mischievous and intent, their voices as one as they implored. "You could...not tell them."

"Certainly an interesting proposition," Ardyn answered, though this time he was the one frowning, as if he couldn't _quite_ figure out what they were up to, and it was upsetting him.

Nox shrugged, leaning into Lux who hadn't broken eye contact with Ardyn.

"We could give you state secrets!" Lux sweetened the pot. "We've _heard_ things, haven't we, Nox?"

Nox grinned, smirking as he knew exactly which secrets Lux wanted to share. "Oh _yeah_ ," he agreed. " _We know things_."

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> "The who fucked who of Insomnia's court are not _state secrets_ ," Ardyn hissed, pinching the bridge of his nose in consternation. "Whyfor the two of you know so much about the sexual deviances of your court members in any case, I dare not ask."
> 
> Nox and Lux shrugged. "We're teenagers?" they answered in unison.
> 
> "Were _you_ ever a teenager, or were you just born _delicious_ , McHottie?" Lux spoke up, sly, and Nox peered interestedly at the Chancellor, awaiting his answer.
> 
> "Get _out_ ," Ardyn snarled, something almost _inhuman_ flashing over his face for the quickest of instants, but they'd both seen it, Nox had caught the look in Lux's eyes, Chancellor McHottie _was more than just a pretty face_.


	2. so i will cut you free myself

Zegnautus Keep was full of _monsters_ , in all different shapes and sizes and viciousnesses; things that roared and shrieked and slammed up against the glass of the enclosures they were trapped in.

"This is some _fucked up shit_ ," Nox said, hushed as they crept around the inner bowels of the keep, peeking in on each room with ever-growing curiosity. Ardyn had put them in what looked like a dormitory and told them to _wait there_ , but Nox and Lux been getting into and out of locked rooms since they were old enough to _crawl_ ; the security of the keep was laughable compared to the shit Regis had had installed at the Citadel since they hit their teens. 

"What do you think's in there?" Lux asked, watching a scientist swipe a keycard before entering a locked room that looked like it opened into a _huge_ space. 

Nox smirked, throwing an arm over Lux's shoulders as he voiced what they were both thinking. "Only one way to find out!"

-

The silvery streaks in Lux's hair seemed to glow in the weird almost-phosphorescent light that came off the lamps in the room. There was something at the far end of it, shaking the very floor with its growling. 

The twins gasped when they reached it, staring at the beast in awe. It had three slobbering heads, each of its jaws bigger than a small house, and they watched as a scientist pushed some buttons on a panel that led to the daemon getting shocked, letting out a groaning moan. It opened one of its gaping maws, and a plasma blast issued forth that left dark charred streaks across the window of the viewing area.

" _I want one_ ," Nox and Lux said together, then shoved at each other as they both hissed, " _jinx!_ " and almost fell off the platform they were standing on.

-

They waited until the scientists had left again, the beast still growling and angry about the poking and prodding it'd been subjected to.

"You _poor_ thing," Lux cooed at it, putting a hand to the glass that separated them, and Nox looked over the controls as he tried to remember the ones the scientists had been pushing.

"Which one lets it out, do you think?" he asked, and Lux shrugged back. 

"Only one way to find out?" 

They grinned at each other, and started pressing all the buttons at once.

-

" _What_ ," Ardyn snarled, each word like it was causing him physical pain to produce—" _are you doing._ "

"We're taking him for walkies!" Nox quipped, about to dash away again when Ardyn's arm flashed out and grabbed him by the collar of his shirt, holding him dangling in the air, and he had Lux caught in his other hand as he _stared_ down the Cerberus, the five-story-tall daemon that had chased them all around the keep, leaving a devastating path of destruction in its wake. Amazingly, the Cerberus meekly laid down and put its heads on its paws as Ardyn growled a subvocal sound, _commanding_ it.

"Holy _shit_ ," Lux said, gaze flicking between the Cerberus and Ardyn, whose face was now painted with shadows, eyes a lovely golden hue. " _That is so cool_."

"Can you _teach us?_ " Nox asked, and he really couldn't help himself this time; he reached out a hand and dragged it through the shadows, watching as the viscous not-quite-liquid clung to his fingers, crawling _up_ them.

Ardyn dropped them both to the floor in a heap, taking deep breaths as his face returned to normal, and Nox and Lux sighed in disappointment.

"I have half a mind to _murder you two_ myself," Ardyn intoned, so _feelingly,_ like hardly anyone ever sounded around them these days, too used to the chaos and mayhem they brought with them wherever they went.

Nox gasped, clutching a hand to his heart dramatically. 

"I _knew_ you felt that way about us," Lux declared, standing up to take Ardyn's hands in his, eyes shining. "Let's just forget that Oracle business and marry _you_ for the treaty, yeah?"

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> "I'm Nox," Lux said, them pointed a thumb at Nox. "And that's Lux."
> 
> "Fuck you, _I'm_ Nox," Nox protested, knowing that Lux was only taking his name so _he'd_ be the one blamed for all this when it got back to Regis, and they scuffled until Lux managed to get him in a stranglehold.
> 
> "We want McHottie's hand in marriage," Lux declared victoriously, letting Nox go so he could add—
> 
> "Yeah, we wanna tap that _sweet_ ass."
> 
> Emperor Iedolas looked at the two Lucian princes in complete bewilderment. His esteemed Chancellor was nowhere to be found to shed any light on the matter.


End file.
